Expanding on a previous post using AI to unframe and extend the backgrounds of iconic works of art and other bounded creations, the same suite of tools has been applied to internet memes to image what’s going on just outside of the picture, like for Side-Eye Chloe or Wandering-Eye Boyfriend.
Photographed on this day in 1910 at Windsor Place by the studio of W & D Downey, these nine sovereigns, King Haakon VII or Norway, Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria, King Manuel II of Portugal, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, King George I of Greece, King Albert I of Belgium, King Alfonso XIII of Spain, Emperor George V of the United Kingdom and King Frederick VIII of Denmark, were gathered for the 
funeral of George’s immediate predecessor, Edward VII (Albert Edward Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, called “Bertie”) and considered the Uncle of Europe by dint of his relatedness to all assembled (plus a non-zero chance of being the father of Winston Churchill and grandfather of Queen Camilla), whom had died on 6 May after suffering a series of massive heart attacks. Excluded for the most part from participation in regnal duties during his six decade wait on his mother, Queen Victoria, to leave office, Edward pursued the life of leisure of the privileged elite, travelling, gambling and earning the reputation of a playboy prince, taking on several liaisons (by some counts fifty-five, see above) and frequenting an exclusive brothel in Paris, Le Chabanais, a private room kitted out with his coat of arms and a custom made siege d’amour to allow the by then corpulent heir abilities to fornicate with multiple individuals at once. Though already past average life-expectancy at the time of his enthronement and with lower overall expectations for this last monarch to exercise political power, the legacy of the short reign of Edward saw the transition into constitutionally-bound sovereignty, was forward thinking and inclusive, especially for the time, and tried to keep peace amongst his nephews and was as capable of being dignified as he was indulgent.
A closed town founded in 1970 to serve the neighbouring Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station but not restricted like other cities and a showcase of Soviet engineering and innovation, Prypriat (ะัะธ́ะฟสผััั) was evacuated on this day in 1986 following the disaster and has remained, within the exclusion zone, a time capsule slowly being reclaimed by nature and a draw for urban explorers. One particular attraction is the amusement park, slated for a grand opening for May Day celebrations in a state of abandon and ruin, with the iconic ferris wheel (ะััะณะพะฒะพะน ะพะฑะทะพั, circular overview) photographed as a symbol of the catastrophe and the delayed announcement of the danger, a population of some fifty thousand imperilled by high radition exposure for over thirty-six hours since the initial fire and steam explosion.
Fellow internet peripatetic Messy Nessy Chic directs our attention to the former nexus of Germany’s 
pacifist and feminist movement in the photography studio and artists’ salon in glorious Jugenstil. Ultimately demolished and the address on Von-der-Tann-Strasse now occupied by the US Consulate of Munich after its stylised dragon faรงade was vandalised during the war years, the property used provisionally as a canteen kitchen, the enterprise spanning from 1898 to 1928 was notable as the first company in Germany founded by women, jurist, suffragist, writer and actress Anita Theodora Johanna Sophie Augsprung partnering with entrepreneur and photographer Sophia N J Goudstikker, and an important meeting place for avant garde artists in parallel with its primary business of taking pictures of celebrities and the aristocracy.
photo booth: a self-meme generator that uses AI—via Web Curios
1up: the Super Mario Brothers’ theme inscribed in the US National Recording Registry—via Miss Cellania
martin chuzzlewit: Dickens’ illustrators
acta et vita: today is the feast of Lidwina, patron saint of chronic illness and ice- and roller-skaters
spring break: a look at the highdays and holidays of Old London—via Strange Company
jubilee: US Supreme Court ruled against blocking cancellation of student loan debt—see previously
the real macguffin: the Holy Grail of grail stories—with plenty of references to pop-culture
double-feature: raw footage from a video rental store on a Friday night in 1987—what titles would you have picked?
robo boys: an untethered large language model builds on a college years group chat with insights on the process of AI fine-tuning—via Waxy
the house of mouse: Disney lawyers thwart Florida governor’s interference plans by linking status quo to the British monarchy
the highrise collection: a drone exploration of beautiful early twentieth century skyscrapers of the USmambabatok: Vogue Philippines has 106-year-old traditional tattoo Apo Whang-Od artist on its cover
fraktur folk art: the lettering of German dissident รฉmigrรฉ communities in Pennsylvania (see also)
pretty fly for a white guy: Finnish politicians, as their rapping alter-egos Qruu and Cstar, drop some rhymes for their campaign platform—via Miss Cellania
gelatinous cube: the 1977 Dungeon’s & Dragons Monster Manual
g: all. of. the. above: a Trump indictment quiz
Reposted and propagated without context, the images of Pope Francis sporting a Balencia-style puffer jacket—plus several viral variants, as actual photographs of His Holiness (see previously), despite once past cursory observation that most detection protocols miss as well the mangled details give it away—prompting discussions on labelling, the allure of plausibility and entertaining the virtuosity of one’s imagination as well as the dangers of such fabrication, particularly when it is dismissed as harmless or worse yet resignedly immaterial.
Having previously explored the advent and the economy of the medium, we enjoyed this profile of the 
work of the nineteenth century travelling portrait artist William Bache, whose extensive portfolio of commissioned and sampler silhouettes not only reveal celebrities in profile but reveal the stories of hitherto anonymous sitters. Moreover at a time when fear and risk of communicable disease was rampant in the Americas and Caribbean, which was inclusive of Bache’s territory, the entrepreneur in the undeveloped industry of keepsake avatars distinguished himself from the competition with a device—since defamed for its association with eugenics for its reputed ability for scientifically-sound racial profiling—the physiognotrace which could create a faithful silhouette contact free. More at Hyperallergic at the link above.
shepherds bush’s: a collection of vintage photographs from Peter Marshall
hold my calls, i’m blogging: the life of the dedicated internet caretakers
clubhouse goals: the creative compound of the Red Rose Girls of fin de siรจcle sisterly Philadelphia
dynamo: labelling suggestions
notes art: stunning sketches made in the Notes app—via Things Magazine
clickbait: sixteen seven companies dominating search results—via ibฤซdem
the cheops inclination: unbuilt mortuary monuments of London—see previously—inspired by Egyptomania
i want to lie, shipwrecked and comatose, drinking fresh mango juice: celebrating the thirty-fifth anniversary of Red Dwarf
cabmen’s shelter fund: the remaining few historical kiosks constructed so livery wouldn’t need to let unattended—see previously
Via the always excellent Everlasting Blรถrt, we are directed towards a photographic tour from Alys Tomlinson of the islands of Sardinia, Sicily and the Veneto discovering and documenting the traditional costumes and masks of local festivals, particularly but not exclusively Carnival processions. Many of the most elaborate outfits are part of the parade of Aidomaggiore, in the centre of Sardinia, garb alternating from white on the Monday before Ash Wednesday to black on the last day before Lent with the Sonaggiaos bedecked with cowbells, followed by the Mumutzones dressed as traditional shepherds with a headdress of cork and animal horns in rites celebrating transhumance syncreted with religious pilgrimage.
your heart fits me like a glove: Madonna dream diary
clickword: a Scrabble-like single-player game—via Miss Cellania
sideshow bob roberts: Simpsons show-runner Josh Weinstein shares a treasury of easter eggs and little known provenances
arby’s+: more restaurant franchises are turning to subscription plans
the dรผsseldorf patient: a fifth individual is cured of HIV after stem-cell therapy
jpeg: an image only newsletter with click-through surprises—via Waxy
aurora borealis—at this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the country, localised entirely within your kitchen: an infinite Steamed Hams generated by AI—see previously, see also
air-brush: popular photographer admits his portraits are synthesised by an neural network
images from the collective unconscious: Olga Frรถbe-Kapteyn’s archive of dream archetypes
The entrance discovered the previous November with little countenance of what lie beneath, on this day in 
1923 with twenty invited witnesses, including the expedition sponsor George Herbert, the archaeological team of Howard Carter broke the seal to the inner chamber of the Tomb of Tutankhamun—being the first to see the treasures and golden sarcophagus of the pharaoh in over three millennia. Ten days later to spare his excavators from toil in the heat of the harsh summer and resume work in Autumn, Carter arranged to have the doorway blocked by tonnes of sand and rubble. This reburial corresponded with reporting from The New York Times that some two hundred and fifty American tourist, including a congressional delegation had boarded the ocean liner S S Adriatic, bound for Luxor to visit the tomb.
Via Strange Company, we are directed towards the Gentle Author’s visit to the Tower of London and privileged to accompany her taking part in the oldest, unbroken military ceremony in the world, a nightly vigil that has taken place through war and plague for over seven centuries, “The Ceremony of the Keys” executed faithfully by the Yeoman Porter, locking the main gates for the night at ten sharp. Photographed by Martin Usborne, granted a rare license and access since at the request of the sovereign the pomp and protocol has never been filmed, visit Spitalfields Life for more on this ancient ritual, the repetition kept up without stint or remiss.
A cache of behind-the-scenes Polaroid photographs from the 1995 crime thriller starring Angelina Jolie, Lorraine Bracco and Matthew Lillard film Hackers has been making the internet rounds again recently and is responsible for a whole range of nostalgia, like its debut that corresponded with the rise of the medium itself in the public consciousness and the manifesto of this new frontier authored a decade prior quoted at length: 
“This is our world now—the world of the electron and the switch… We exist without skin colour, without nationality, without religious bias and yet you call us criminals,” with the admission of guilt for the transgression of curiosity. These snapshots really capture a moment. Much more at the link above.
picket lines: Sunak’s cabinet to implement anti-strike laws to enforce basic services during stoppages
⭕️ ๐ฏ: draw a perfect circle camera obscura: the fantastic, “historical” photography apparatuses of Mathieu Stern
all maps at once: interesting and interactive cartographical overlays with the open-source viewing standard
murphy desk: the flow wall workspace designed by Robert van Embricqs
this is the sound of a gavel: a litany of concessions in exchange for the House Speakership
Courtesy of Kottke, we are enjoying perusing the top one hundred entries for the Close-Up Photographer of the Year competition. There were too many outstanding images to choose from but we especially appreciated those who took the time to consider the toadstool, up-close and intimate, like Barry Webb’s huddle of Cribraria, a type of slime mould. The contest for 2023 opens already in March so plenty of time to get tiny.
press pool: NPR station photographers swap memorable images from 2022
opus cรฆmenticium: make concrete the Roman way—see also
pre-bunking: intelligence agencies should engage in more public outreach to fight disinformation
mallory gallery: top exhibitions of the year
golden eye: reindeer retinas change colours with the seasons—via Nag on the Lake
fido: dogs with human names—via Waxy
mmxxii: year in review—news and journalists
Born this day in 1922 and still taking pictures, Michelantonio “Tony” Celestino Onofrio Vaccaro immigrated back to the US to avoid being conscripted in Italy and despite already having an impressive 
photographic portfolio just out of high school his first draft assignment as a photo-documentarian with the Army Signal Corps didn’t pan out and was instead assigned as a scout, fighting in Normandy, Luxembourg and Germany—though still affording opportunities to shoot images, evocative impressions of the front captured in 1944 and 1945. After being discharged, Vaccaro remained in Germany, contributing to the Army newspaper Stars & Stripes and recording life post-war in Frankfurt. Returning to America in the early 1950s, Vaccaro took assignments with Look, Life and Flair magazines as a society photographer, marrying a model for fashion house Marimekko, and after a decades’-long stint teaching at Cooper Union published a selection of his extensive wartime archive, under the imprint Entering Germany: Photographs 1944 – 1949. Click here for a gallery of Vaccaro’s diverse subjects.
low-poly: needlepoint designs based on vintage video games—see previously
ghost mall: visiting a virtually abandoned yet very much open for business shopping centre in New Jersey
zenosyne: from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (previously here and here)—that feeling that time is getting faster
digichromatography: a survey of the seconds, the raw files, of Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky’s documentation of the Russian Empire is a study in the development of colour photography—see also
the pandoravirus: the melting Siberian permafrost is reviving long dormant but viable germs
q-zone: a racing timeline of the most popular social media from 2003 to the present
์ด: South Korea will abandon traditional age-reckoning in favour of an international recognised counting method beginning next year
akka-arrh: Atari reprises a 1982 arcade game that was never released commercially as it proved too challenging for test-audiences
Photographed by one of the crew, likely Harrison Schmitt or Gene Cernan but ever member took turns taking pictures with the Hasselblad camera, of the Apollo XVII mission on its way to the Moon from a distance of just under thirty thousand kilometers on this day in 1972. 
Backlit and slightly rounded—gibbous and hence the name—from the astronauts’ perspective and after Earthrise only the second whole planet image captured by a human photographer, the Blue Marble is among the most widely reproduced and circulated images in existence, it was received by the public at a moment of increased environmental activism and awareness and helped focus the movement by framing Earth’s uniqueness and vulnerability set against the endless expanse of space. Although recreated by satellite imagining, there have been no crewed excursions since that taken us high enough aloft—yet—to fit the entire planet in the view-finder.
